Caruso Primed for Tirreno-Adriatico Time Trial After Finishing Safely on Stage 6

Damiano Caruso heads into the final stage of this year’s Tirreno-Adriatico sitting second on the General Classification after another strong day of teamwork from BMC Racing Team saw him finish safely in the main bunch on stage 6.

After three tough days of racing, the General Classification contenders were out of the spotlight in the closing meters of today’s race with stage 5 coming down to a fast and furious bunch sprint in Fano.

Four riders attacked in the first kilometer of racing and the peloton was happy to allow the breakaway to hang around three minutes off the front over the rolling terrain that made up most of the day.

The road flattened out considerably going into the final 35km with Marcus Burghardt (BORA-hansgrohe), who had been able to distance himself from the rest of the early breakaway, heading onto the first of two laps of a 12.8km circuit with a lead of only one minute.

Greg Van Avermaet and Patrick Bevin denied race leader, Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) the opportunity to extend his advantage over Caruso by sprinting to take the rest of the bonus seconds available on the first passage of the finish line.

Burghardt was eventually caught inside 20km to go as the sprinters’ teams took control of the race with the pace intensifying at the sound of the bell ringing to mark to the start of the final lap.

Bevin and Michael Schär were involved in a crash in the middle of the peloton with 7km to go. Fortunately, both riders were able to get back up and finish the stage. A medical update is provided below.

A tricky run into the line saw riders all across the road as the bunch made the final turn onto the finishing straight with Marcel Kittel (Team Katusha-Alpecin) winning the drag race to the line ahead of Peter Sagan (BORA-hansgrohe) and Maximiliano Richeze (Quick-Step Floors).

After being protected by his BMC Racing Team teammates all day, Caruso crossed the line safely to hold onto second on the General Classification, three seconds behind Kwiatkowski heading into what is set to be an exciting final time trial tomorrow.

Quotes From the Finish Line

Damiano Caruso:

"Today was good for me. The final was very chaotic, but the guys did another really good job especially when Kwiatkowski went for the bonus seconds. Everything is good right now so we will just have to wait and see what happens tomorrow. I feel good and I'm confident, so tomorrow I will be going all in. You don't get many chances in life, so it's important to go deep and just go for it."

BMC Racing Team doctor, Dr. Giovanni Ruffini:

“Both Patrick Bevin and Michael Schär were able to finish the race after crashing and fortunately there were no serious injuries. Schär did have some skin abrasions that we wanted to look at but on observation, there was nothing to worry about.”